Another bidding quandry…

I

INYWIFNW

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House listed at €875k. We got into a bidding war with two other parties and were outbid. Our last bid was €940k, with one of the other parties bidding €950k, and the other bidding €960k. Two weeks later, both other parties have withdrawn their bids, and estate agent has asked if we are standing over our €940k bid. We are told that vendor will go sale agreed at €940k.

I am wondering if the other bids were genuine. I am tempted to go back to the estate agent and say our bid is now €920k - still €45k over asking - and if the vendor wants to go back to the market and organise further viewings etc, that’s fine. Obviously we can’t say we can only afford €920k!

Do you think this is a reasonable approach? If you were to ask me if we’re willing to lose this house over €20k, I’d say yes - we like the house, but €20k is €20k and there’ll be other houses we like.
 
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting any impropriety on behalf of the estate agent, because I understand it’s not worth their while trying to squeeze another few grand out of a property. It’s more that I wonder if the other bidders were friends of the vendor or something like that - it’s relatively easy to show capacity to bid.
 
Could be that they got the house surveyed and found something wrong with it.

Could be that they were simply not approved for the mortgage.

Could be that the estate agent was spoofing.

What do you think that the house is worth? Worth to you?

If you offer €820k, they will start messing again.

I would probably offer the listing price as a starting bid.

Brendan
 
It's not unusual for people to bid beyond what they can justify or even afford when a few parties get into a bidding war, only for one or more to later retract their offers after more careful consideration. I experienced the other side of it when I last sold property.
 
INYWIFNW said:
House listed at €875k. We got into a bidding war with two other parties and were outbid. Our last bid was €940k, with one of the other parties bidding €950k, and the other bidding €960k. Two weeks later, both other parties have withdrawn their bids, and estate agent has asked if we are standing over our €940k bid. We are told that vendor will go sale agreed at €940k.

I am wondering if the other bids were genuine. I am tempted to go back to the estate agent and say our bid is now €920k - still €45k over asking - and if the vendor wants to go back to the market and organise further viewings etc, that’s fine. Obviously we can’t say we can only afford €920k!

Do you think this is a reasonable approach? If you were to ask me if we’re willing to lose this house over €20k, I’d say yes - we like the house, but €20k is €20k and there’ll be other houses we like.
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How badly do you want the house? I understand completely the feeling of not wanting to be ‘taken advantage of’ for want of a better word. But ultimately in the scheme of life the €20k saving is largely irrelevant. Depending on the answer to the question above, missing out altogether could be very costly indeed.

Coming from our own experience. We were outbid on 10+ properties over 18 months.

On one of them, we had a similar situation. Asking was €1.1m. We and another party bid it up until they ‘won’ at €1.3m. They pulled out. EA offered it to us at €1.29m. I said I’d only pay €1.25m because other bidder was not genuine.

Seller went back to market. Bidding went even higher. We dropped out at €1.35m the second time and it ultimately sold for €1.45m….
I drive by the house every single day and kick myself for trying to save €40k to ‘win’ some imaginary mind game with the estate agent
 
I would definitely recommend going back to the asking price or just slightly above as a gesture of good will. For one offer to fall is unfortunate. For both offers to be withdrawn sounds highly suspicious. This happened to me in the past, supposedly outbid then offer withdrawn. I also withdrew and the house did not sell. If the owner is genuine they will sell.
 
We sold an apartment earlier this year. Something similar happened. First sale agreed person pulled out (panicked as he’d over bit - even we said it was going for more than I should. ) EA went back to the underbidder and they went back to their original offer from before the bidding war took off. We understood where they were coming from. I’d go back to that offer as a starting point.
 
INYWIFNW said:
House listed at €875k. We got into a bidding war with two other parties and were outbid. Our last bid was €940k, with one of the other parties bidding €950k, and the other bidding €960k. Two weeks later, both other parties have withdrawn their bids, and estate agent has asked if we are standing over our €940k bid. We are told that vendor will go sale agreed at €940k.

I am wondering if the other bids were genuine. I am tempted to go back to the estate agent and say our bid is now €920k - still €45k over asking - and if the vendor wants to go back to the market and organise further viewings etc, that’s fine. Obviously we can’t say we can only afford €920k!

Do you think this is a reasonable approach? If you were to ask me if we’re willing to lose this house over €20k, I’d say yes - we like the house, but €20k is €20k and there’ll be other houses we like.
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20k is nothing in the context of 940k.

Separately, if you’ll walk over 20k at this level, well this house is not for you.
 
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